Tag: cut

Six weeks after agreeing to slash production, major oil producers are finally giving investors some clarity on exactly how much crude they’ll take off the market. OPEC on Friday released a table laying out production quotas for each of its 14 members and the 10 allied countries participating in the deal. However, over the following weeks, international benchmark Brent crude prices fell another 18 percent. The continued slide reportedly prompted OPEC to urge oil producers to publicly release thei

Six weeks after agreeing to slash production, major oil producers are finally giving investors some clarity on exactly how much crude they’ll take off the market.

OPEC on Friday released a table laying out production quotas for each of its 14 members and the 10 allied countries participating in the deal. The two dozen nations agreed last month to slash a combined 1.2 million barrels per day in order to prevent a repeat of the oil glut that caused crude prices to tank from 2014 to 2016.

However, over the following weeks, international benchmark Brent crude prices fell another 18 percent. The continued slide reportedly prompted OPEC to urge oil producers to publicly release their production quotas to boost the market’s confidence in the cuts.

While oil prices have risen for the last three weeks, OPEC has nevertheless decided to publish the output levels under the deal, which runs through the first six months of 2019. The so-called OPEC+ alliance meets April 17-18 to assess the impact of the cuts.

Here’s how much each of the countries in the deal will endeavor to keep off the market:

Some countries are scaling down or scrapping entire projects that are part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative amid mounting financial concerns over the continent-spanning venture. That revised stance not only confirms global fears over the terms of BRI financing, it could also indicate that developing countries are now more willing to prioritize sovereign interests over their need for foreign investment. But critics see it as a means to benefit China’s military, increase opportunities for Chine

Some countries are scaling down or scrapping entire projects that are part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative amid mounting financial concerns over the continent-spanning venture.

In recent months, developing nations such as Pakistan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sierra Leone have either canceled or backed away from previously negotiated BRI commitments, citing worries over high project costs and their impact on national debt and the economy.

That revised stance not only confirms global fears over the terms of BRI financing, it could also indicate that developing countries are now more willing to prioritize sovereign interests over their need for foreign investment.

The BRI — Beijing’s signature foreign policy program — is the superpower’s attempt to stretch its economic power across the globe through the construction of maritime and overland transportation links across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe. But critics see it as a means to benefit China’s military, increase opportunities for Chinese companies and help Beijing gain political leverage.

Under the trillion-dollar endeavor, Chinese state-owned entities flush with cash offer participating countries cheap loans and credit to build large-scale projects such as ports and railways. These arrangements are usually negotiated government-to-government with below-market interest rates but many nations are growing wary over their debt loads.

The Saudis are targeting another drop to 10.2 million bpd this month, Falih has said. The pullback in OPEC production was deepened by supply disruptions in Libya and Iran. It’s output rose 88,000 bpd to just over 4.7 million bpd. Excluding Qatar, OPEC forecasts demand for the group’s oil will average 30.8 million bpd in 2019, about 900,000 bpd lower than last year. Demand for OPEC’s oil fell by about 1.2 million bpd last year, the group says.

When OPEC announced the deal, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al Falih initially said his country’s output would fall to 10.7 million bpd in December from a record high 11.1 million bpd in November. The Saudis are targeting another drop to 10.2 million bpd this month, Falih has said.

The pullback in OPEC production was deepened by supply disruptions in Libya and Iran.

Output in Libya fell by 172,000 bpd to 928,000 bpd in December, after a group of armed protesters and aggrieved workers took over the country’s largest oil field.

In Iran, production dropped by another 159,000 bpd to just under 2.8 million bpd, as the nation enters a second month under wide-ranging U.S. sanctions. The Islamic Republic has gone from being OPEC’s third biggest producer to its fifth largest, falling behind the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait in December.

Iraq saw the biggest jump in production in the final month of the year. It’s output rose 88,000 bpd to just over 4.7 million bpd. At that level, Baghdad would need to cut about 200,000 bpd in January to meet its quota under the supply cut agreement. Iraq, OPEC’s second largest producer, regularly pumped above its quota throughout the group’s last round of supply cuts.

December marks OPEC’s first monthly report since Qatar left the organization amid an ongoing blockade against the Gulf nation by neighbors including Saudi Arabia and UAE.

Excluding Qatar, OPEC forecasts demand for the group’s oil will average 30.8 million bpd in 2019, about 900,000 bpd lower than last year. Demand for OPEC’s oil fell by about 1.2 million bpd last year, the group says.

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Sunday he’s positive OPEC and partnered nations will meet their production cut commitments to balance oil markets in 2019, despite what he described as a slower than anticipated pace by some. “We’ve already done it, we’ve done enough,” Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told CNBC on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, when asked what OPEC’s largest producer would do to balance markets this year. Russia was more reluctant to cut its output, as its growth is heavily depende

Saudi Arabia’s energy minister said Sunday he’s positive OPEC and partnered nations will meet their production cut commitments to balance oil markets in 2019, despite what he described as a slower than anticipated pace by some.

“We’ve already done it, we’ve done enough,” Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih told CNBC on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, when asked what OPEC’s largest producer would do to balance markets this year. “Not only the kingdom but other countries, we’ve heard from the Emirates, I’ve talked repeatedly to my colleagues in Iraq, they’ve already taken action,” he told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble.

He then mentioned the performance of the largest non-OPEC producer that’s partnered with the cartel on cuts: “Russia has started, slower than I’d like, but they’ve started, and I am sure as they did as in 2017 they’ll catch up and be a positive contributor to re-balancing the market.”

OPEC members, along with several other countries, in December agreed on output cuts totaling 1.2 million barrels per day in order to stem a sinking market and support their own export-dependent economies. “OPEC plus” refers to the group’s cooperation with the non-OPEC producers like Russia and other former Soviet states, as well as Mexico. Russia was more reluctant to cut its output, as its growth is heavily dependent on robust crude exports.

Russia has initially let the Saudis shoulder the bulk of output cuts. The top OPEC ally, which in late 2016 began a cooperation agreement with Riyadh to stabilize oil prices, has often said that $60 per barrel is enough to meet its economic needs. Moscow in December said it would cut production by 50,000 to 60,000 barrels a day in January, while Saudi pledged a cut of 900,000 barrels.

“If anything, cooling factory gate inflation will strengthen the case for the central bank to do more to ease financial pressure on industrial firms including by cutting benchmark lending rates.” “Rapidly falling inflation, especially factory-gate PPI inflation, is further evidence that China’s economy is slowing at a worrying pace,” Nomura economists wrote in a note on Thursday. The slower inflation will give Beijing “plenty of room to loosen (monetary) policy,” said Evans-Pritchard in a note o

“If anything, cooling factory gate inflation will strengthen the case for the central bank to do more to ease financial pressure on industrial firms including by cutting benchmark lending rates.”

China’s Consumer Price Index — a gauge of prices for goods and services — rose 1.9 percent on year in December, lower than economists’ expectations of a 2.1 percent growth, according to a Reuters’ poll. The CPI rose 2.2 percent in November.

The latest data brought China’s PPI for January to December 2018 a rise of 3.5 percent, while full-year CPI was up 2.1 percent — below Beijing’s target of 3 percent in consumer inflation for the entire year.

“Rapidly falling inflation, especially factory-gate PPI inflation, is further evidence that China’s economy is slowing at a worrying pace,” Nomura economists wrote in a note on Thursday.

The slump in producer inflation suggests corporate earnings would fall in the coming months, they added.

Analysts say the latest data could lead to further easing measures by the government as it seeks to stimulate the economy.

The slower inflation will give Beijing “plenty of room to loosen (monetary) policy,” said Evans-Pritchard in a note on Thursday. “If anything, cooling factory gate inflation will strengthen the case for the central bank to do more to ease financial pressure on industrial firms including by cutting benchmark lending rates.”

“Falling inflation leaves more room for Beijing to roll out more aggressive policies to bolster growth and could lead to lower interbank rates and bond yields,” the Nomura analysts added in their note.

Economic data from the world’s second-largest economy are being closely watched for signs of damage inflicted by the trade war between Washington and Beijing.

The U.S. is in danger of losing its triple-A sovereign credit rating later this year, Fitch said on Wednesday, warning an ongoing government shutdown could soon start to impact its ability to pass a budget. A stalemate between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats over a spending package to fund nine government agencies entered its 19th day on Wednesday. It comes at a time when lawmakers are deeply divided over the president’s demand for money for a border wall. So there is a meanin

The U.S. is in danger of losing its triple-A sovereign credit rating later this year, Fitch said on Wednesday, warning an ongoing government shutdown could soon start to impact its ability to pass a budget.

A stalemate between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats over a spending package to fund nine government agencies entered its 19th day on Wednesday. It comes at a time when lawmakers are deeply divided over the president’s demand for money for a border wall.

“I think people are looking at the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) numbers. If people take the time to look at that you can see debt levels moving higher, you can see the interest burden in the U.S. government moving decidedly higher over the next decade,” James McCormack, Fitch’s global head of sovereign ratings told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Wednesday.

“There needs to be some kind of fiscal adjustment to offset that or the deficit itself moves higher and you’re essentially borrowing money to pay interest on the debt. So there is a meaningful fiscal deterioration there, going on the United States,” he added.

Speaking later at an event in London, McCormack continued: “If this shutdown continues to March 1 and the debt ceiling becomes a problem several months later, we may need to start thinking about the policy framework, the inability to pass a budget … And whether all of that is consistent with triple-A.”

“From a rating point of view it is the debt ceiling that is problematic,” he added, according to Reuters.

LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut off federal relief aid to California for wildfires, prompting a swift response from new Democratic Gov. “Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen,” Trump tweeted. Trump’s threat to pull FEMA funding follows Newsom’s criticism of the Trump administration Monday during his inaugural address. For example, in November he went on social media to b

LOS ANGELES — President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to cut off federal relief aid to California for wildfires, prompting a swift response from new Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom that “disasters and recovery are no time for politics.”

“Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen,” Trump tweeted. “Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money. It is a disgraceful situation in lives & money!”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been helping on the ground in California after wildfires in November collectively damaged or destroyed more than 20,000 structures and killed at least 89 people. The largest blaze was the devastating Camp Fire that destroyed most of the Northern California town of Paradise, killing at least 86 people in the nation’s deadliest wildfire in at least a century. FEMA also has been providing help in response to the Woolsey and Hill fires in Southern California.

CNBC reached out to FEMA and the White House for comment.

“Disasters and recovery are no time for politics,” Newsom fired back in a tweet. “I’m already taking action to modernize and manage our forests and emergency responses. The people of CA – folks in Paradise – should not be victims to partisan bickering.”

Playing out in the background, however, are rising tensions between the Republican president and Democrats as the partial U.S. government shutdown Wednesday entered its 19th day due to a stalemate over funding Trump’s proposed border wall. Newsom has been critical of the wall and Trump’s policies on immigration, as well as a wide range of other issues.

Trump’s threat to pull FEMA funding follows Newsom’s criticism of the Trump administration Monday during his inaugural address. Newsom called the administration “hostile to California’s values and interests” and also took a swipe at what he called “the corruption and incompetence in the White House.”

The threat to halt disaster funds also could be a setback for recovery efforts in Paradise, a community in Butte County, where Trump edged Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by more than 3 percentage points in 2016.

The president has been critical of California’s wildfire prevention efforts previously and threatened to pull federal funds in October and then again in November as firefighters were still battling major blazes across the state. For example, in November he went on social media to blame “gross mismanagement of the forests” for the state’s wildfires and added, “Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!”

Then, a week after his tweet about “gross mismanagement,” the president flew to California to see the devastation in Paradise with then-Gov. Jerry Brown and Newsom and suggested the “forest nation” Finland did a better job preventing wildfires by devoting “a lot of time raking and cleaning and doing things, and they don’t have any problem.”

In addition, back in August as the massive Mendocino Complex wildfires in Northern California were raging, the president claimed the state’s wildfires were “being magnified & made so much worse” due to what he called California’s “bad environmental laws.”

California fire officials have said the increasing severity of wildfires in the state is due to climate change, not forest management practices.

“The president’s attempt to pin sole blame for California’s wildfire problems on the state’s forest management is flat wrong,” said Brian Rice, president of the California Professional Firefighters — a union representing about 30,000 local, state and federal firefighters.

He called Trump’s threat to pull FEMA aid “deplorable” and said those still rebuilding their lives in Paradise now “find themselves being used as pawns in the president’s ill-informed chest-pounding at their expense.” Rice also ripped the president for “a self-imposed [government] shutdown” and said Trump “has little standing to lecture anyone else about dysfunction.”

Rice pointed out the lion’s share of forest land in California is controlled by the federal government and added that “many catastrophic fires in California occur in the wildland-urban interface, fueled by unprecedented weather conditions, drought and development patterns.”

According to the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, about one-third of the state is forested land, and nearly 60 percent is owned by the federal government. Only 3 percent is owned by state or local governments. The remaining forested land is owned by private entities, including timber companies.

On Tuesday, Newsom announced plans to expand the state’s emergency preparedness for wildfires, including a five-year, $1 billion forest management plan in his next budget. He also wants the state to spend about $300 million for new helicopters and planes to combat fires as well as to update its communications equipment and install more fire-spotting cameras.

A glut of patients who were prescribed Repatha, Amgen’s treatment for high cholesterol, but couldn’t pay for the pricey treatment, were top of mind in the company’s decision to cut the drug’s cost by 60 percent, Amgen Chairman and CEO Bob Bradway said Monday. In October, Amgen cut the price for a biweekly dose of Repatha, bringing the annual $14,100 total, before discounts and rebates, to roughly $5,850. On Monday, the biotechnology giant announced another 60 percent price slash, this time to th

A glut of patients who were prescribed Repatha, Amgen’s treatment for high cholesterol, but couldn’t pay for the pricey treatment, were top of mind in the company’s decision to cut the drug’s cost by 60 percent, Amgen Chairman and CEO Bob Bradway said Monday.

In October, Amgen cut the price for a biweekly dose of Repatha, bringing the annual $14,100 total, before discounts and rebates, to roughly $5,850. On Monday, the biotechnology giant announced another 60 percent price slash, this time to the cost of the monthly dose.

“We found too many patients were prescribed this therapy, but were struggling to pay for it at the pharmacy counter,” Bradway told CNBC in an interview with Jim Cramer. “The reaction so far from physicians and from patients has been very, very encouraging.”

While the positive reaction in itself may not make up for the money Amgen will lose, the number of patients that will reconsider taking the drug at its lower price was encouraging enough for Bradway, who has been CEO of Amgen since 2012.

“What we’re finding is that patients that were walking away from the prescription — so, patients whose doctors had already identified them as being at high risk for heart attack and stroke — are now being able to get access to the medicine,” Bradway said on “Mad Money.”

Repatha treats high LDL cholesterol, the kind that heightens the risk of heart attack and stroke. It’s also the main reason why $600 billion a year is spend on cardiovascular disease, Bradway said, adding that Repatha lowers LDL levels in patients by 63 percent, on average.

Amgen’s stock rose 1.35 percent Monday, settling at $198.07 a share. The company made headlines in 2018 for pioneering Aimovig, the first drug specifically intended for migraine sufferers, and has seen that franchise grow by double digits.

China will cut banks’ reserve requirement ratios (RRRs), taxes and fees, Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday, as the world’s second-largest economy shows further signs of cooling. The measures will also included targeted RRR cuts aimed at supporting small and private companies, Li was quoted as saying in a statement on the website of the Chinese government. China slashed reserve requirements four times in 2018 to free up more funds for banks to lend and analysts expect three to four more cuts this

The measures will also included targeted RRR cuts aimed at supporting small and private companies, Li was quoted as saying in a statement on the website of the Chinese government.

China slashed reserve requirements four times in 2018 to free up more funds for banks to lend and analysts expect three to four more cuts this year starting in the current quarter.

Beijing will also step up “counter-cyclical adjustments” of macro policies and further cut taxes and fees, Li said, largely reiterating previous policy pledges.

Li made the comments at a meeting with officials of the country’s banking and insurance regulator after visiting Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and China Construction Bank.

China reported on Monday that factory activity shrank in December for the first time in over two years, highlighting the challenges facing Beijing as it seeks to end a bruising trade war with Washington and reduce the risk of a sharper economic slowdown in 2019.